Walleye angler Karl Elsner is going to fish in a big tournament close to home this year — thanks to his girlfriend.

Elsner, 50, and his buddies have been complaining for awhile that there’s no substantial walleye fishing tournament circuit with big payouts that focuses just on this state’s waters. To compete, they have to keep traveling to Pennsylvania, Ohio and beyond.

Elsner’s girlfriend, Alicia Stevens, said she just got tired of listening to all the whining. She also disliked her boyfriend, who’s a nurse practitioner, being away so much.

“Karl and all his friends live on Oneida Lake and they kept talking about how it’s a premier spot,” she said. “I told them, ‘Why not just do these tournaments here, in this state? How hard can it be?’”

Stevens, 47, who owns the Genesis II Hair Replacement Studio in North Syracuse and is president of a marketing group, admittedly doesn’t know the difference between a sonar jig and a stickbait when it comes to walleye fishing. But she does know marketing and promotion, and writes her own commercials for her hair replacement business.

“I said, ‘Look, you guys just fish, and I’ll do what I do and take it from there,’” she said.

Stevens has since created the Oneida Lake Team Walleye Trail, which has its first tournament June 3 on Oneida Lake out of Oneida Shores. The two-angler team event has a $150 entry fee and thanks to sponsor involvement, a guaranteed payout of $2,000 for the winning team.

The anglers getting the first- and second-largest fish will get an additional $500 and $250, respectively, courtesy of the Syracuse Realty Group. The group is donating the money in memory of James Wallace, a well-known Oneida Lake angler.

The only thing that comes close to what Stevens is proposing is the New Eastern Walleye Circuit, which has tournaments scheduled on Mosquito Lake (Ohio) on April 29, the Kinzua Reservoir (Pennsylvania) on June 24, Lake Erie (northeast Pennsylvania) on July 7 and Oneida Lake on July 22. The championship is set for Sept. 15-16 on the Kinzua Reservoir. For more, see www.neweasternwalleyeseries.com.

However, the tournament series, which has a $260 team entry fee for each competition and promotes itself as part of the Cabela’s National Team Championships qualifying circuit, didn’t have a strong showing last year on Oneida Lake.

Tournament director Tom Means said he usually has about 30 teams each year on Oneida, but last year only 17 showed. The winner’s payout was around $1,500.

Stevens said she’s determined to organize competitions next year on such waterways as Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and Chautauqua Lake. For more information, or to register for the June 3 tournament, see www.oneidawalleyes.com.

Other walleye action

The 34th annual Cicero-Mattydale Lions Club Walleye Derby is set for May 5-6 on Oneida Lake. It starts at midnight that Friday and runs until 3 p.m. Sunday. Being a fishing derby, competitors can fish from boats or from shore.

The entry fee is $10 and the largest walleye at each of the lake’s eight weigh-in stations will get a $200 gift bag from Triple S, a Buffalo-based fishing equipment company. The angler catching the largest fish overall will earn $1,000.

Anglers can register at Gander Mountain’s Cicero store and a number of other businesses around the lake. For further information, call Rick Teschler, fishing manager at Gander Mountain at 698-1100.

*-- There is also a small tournament series, The Oneida Lake Walleye Trail, that’s been held on the lake for the past four years.

“We don’t have large payouts. We give back 100 percent of what we take in ... it’s kind of like a little club thing,” said Mike Domachowske, of Constantia. “Our largest tournament to date had 18 teams and we paid out $600.”

This past week, the series organizers set dates for the 2012 season. There are four one-day events scheduled for May 20, June 10, July 8 and July 29. There is a two-day championship event on Aug. 18-19. Each of the competitions are headquartered at the Old Boathouse in Constantia and last each day from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“The tournaments are two-person team events and open to any teams that want to enter,” Domachowske said, adding the entry fee is $50 per team for the one-day events and $100 for the championship.